After spending a lot of time indoors these last few months, true spring weather is beginning to arrive in Columbus (my sympathies to the other Midwestern states, who are not so lucky right now). I decided today was the perfect time to finally see the Columbus Park of Roses that is near my home.
The Park of Roses is a 13-acre public park in Columbus, Ohio, that features over 12,000 roses across three gardens. It resides within the much larger 149-acre Whetstone Park, and has been on my list of places to visit once the weather warms.
When I arrived at Whetstone Park, I ended up on the side opposite from the roses, but I didn’t mind. The rest of the park’s trees and flowers have started to bloom, and I had a great time walking around and taking pictures.
In a city as big as Columbus, one would expect there to be a lot of organized community events. Especially as this weekend is one of the first truly good-weather weekends, community events would seem a given. But as I walked around this morning, that thought did not really cross my mind—until it was too late.
I accidentally got trapped in the Clintonville 5K.
After wandering around Whetstone, I decided to leave and look for the rose park on the way home. But as I reached the other end of the park, I saw a lot of people walking. I thought they were leaving some event and returning to their cars, so I walked that way as well.
Little did I know, that end of the park was actually the starting line for a 5K race going on this morning, to raise money for Clintonville schools.
As I followed behind the other walkers, I start seeing police everywhere, and big roadblocks erected across the ends of all the nearby streets. It turns out that all the roads near that end of Whetstone had been barricaded for the morning to allow for the 5K.
I felt way too awkward walking past all the roadblocks, police, and 5K organizers who were cheering people on and directing them to “Turn this way!” or “Go that way!” Especially, none of the roads in the area had sidewalks, so if I walked past the roadblocks and tried to escape, I would be walking into traffic or onto someone’s lawn.
So…
The 5K was a big loop, and it ended where it started. I continued to walk with everyone until we reached the main park again, and then quickly ducked out once we passed the last organizer and before we reached the finish line.
In the image below, the orange star is where I started the 5K, the green star is where I escaped, and the pink line is how far I walked before I got free.
I got in way more walking than I was expecting, but in hindsight, I do know the area better! The best part of the 5K for me was realizing there is a road called Ceramic Drive, and every house on that road was made from brick.